Ferrari's radical 'Macarena' car design could be a prank on F1 rivals

Ferrari

Ferrari's radical 'Macarena' car design could be a prank on F1 rivals

The 2026 season is just around the corner

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Monday 2 March 2026 11:57 Updated: 12:33

A former F1 star has suggested that Ferrari's clever rear wing concept from Bahrain pre-season testing could just be a huge decoy.

Ferrari stunned the paddock in Bahrain when they arrived at the second week of testing with a rear wing that completely reverses when the car is in 'straight mode', as to allow for even more drag reduction.

Team principal Fred Vasseur revealed that they've given it a nickname, the Macarena, but the team only used it for a brief period before switching back to a more conventional rear wing design.

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Following that week of testing, Ferrari's 10 rivals have no doubt been trying to emulate that wing design, testing it in the wind tunnels to see how much difference it makes when it comes to straight line speed.

While it could be a radical design concept that sees Ferrari return to the top of the sport in 2026, it could also just be something that the team were trialling, but will not actually use at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Or, it could be something entirely different, a decoy simply to get the heads in the paddock turned towards their car and away from their rivals' own designs, wasting valuable time in the run up to the start of the season.

That's the suggestion of former McLaren and Red Bull F1 star David Coulthard, who has called the Macarena a 'distraction technique'.

"It could be a complete distraction technique," Coulthard said on the Up to Speed podcast.

"They have had this as a little side project, and now other teams will go and spend time looking at whether it works in CFD, which is the Computational Fluid Dynamics.

"Putting a design team in to look at it, which then means they are not utilising those resources to look at their own cars."

Will Hamilton win an eight world title?

The main aim for Ferrari, of course, is to get back into championship contention, having not won a championship of any kind since the 2008 season.

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is looking to claim an eighth title with the team, and may well have a chance if the team's form in pre-season testing is anything to go off.

Ferrari looked very strong in testing, with Charles Leclerc setting the best time of the entire testing programme on the final day, and Hamilton turning heads with a lightning fast practice start.

There is a long way to go in 2026, and in fact the competitive order at the Australian GP will likely be different to the competitive order a few months down the line, as teams get used to the regulations at different rates.

If Hamilton is to claim an eighth world title in 2026, the Brit will need to perform much better in comparison to Leclerc - whom he finished 86 points behind in 2025 - even if Ferrari do have the dominant car.

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Charles Leclerc 2026 regulations David Coulthard